By Herald Online Staff. Posted at 4:28 p.m. EDT. Miami Herald. Wednesday, August 23, 2000
The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that it has repatriated 26 Cubans.
The Coast Guard Cutter Monhegan took the immigrants to Bahía de Cabañas, Cuba around 10 a.m. yesterday. The immigrants were part of four separate groups picked up at sea between Aug. 16 and Aug. 21.
The first group, six Cuban men, were found by the Coast Guard cutter Vigilant on a raft 40 miles southeast of Alligator Reef on Aug. 16. Five of the men were repatriated. The sixth man was sent to the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay on Aug. 18.
The Vigilant's crew also found the second group on Aug. 16, 13 miles south of Marquesas Key. Seven of those eight immigrants were repatriated while the eighth person was also sent to Guantanamo.
The Coast Guard cutter Confidence picked up the third group of 13 Cubans who were found by a non-Coast Guard Vessel about 38 miles north of Matanzas on Aug. 17. All 13 were repatriated.
On Aug. 21, crew members from Coast Guard Station Key West found a Cuban man on a surfboard 19 miles southwest of Key West. He was repatriated.
According to Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Scott Carr, the Immigration and Naturalization Service interviews Cuban immigrants intercepted on the high seas and on the basis of those interviews determines who is repatriated and who is transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
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